


Blood Is Thicker Than Water

by thiscouldbealittlemoresonic



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bloodbender Aang, Bloodbender Katara, Bloodbending (Avatar), Dark Aang, Dark Katara, Darker than Cannon but not grimdark, From like three years before the showstarts, Hama returned to the Southern Water Tribe and trains Katara as her successor there, Hearing Impaired Zuko, I just need to hurt them a bit more first, It works better because of the isolated envrioment, Sleep Paralysis, Sokka alone, Visually Impaired Zuko, eventual hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2020-10-26 13:35:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20743055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thiscouldbealittlemoresonic/pseuds/thiscouldbealittlemoresonic
Summary: Only a week after Hakoda leaves with his warriors Hama returns to the Southern Water Tribe. She takes on Katara as her student everyone is excited about having a master waterbender at the pole again, but Sokka feels like something isn't right. Hama gives him a bad feeling in his gut and Katara is getting more distant and angry. When Sokka discovers Hama's plan what will he do and can he keep her from corrupting the new found avatar like she did his sister?





	1. Hama

**Author's Note:**

> I got the inspiration for this story from royaltealovingkookiness on tumblr  
Sokka is three years older than Katara because I want him to be a bit more mature when Aang shows up and also, so he's the same age as Zuko for bonding reasons. This also puts a three-year gap between where Hakoda leaves and when they find Aang.  
Special thanks to VasNirada for bataing.

Hama arrived in the Southern Water Tribe a week after Chief Hakoda and his warriors left to help with the war effort. It was seen as a good omen by those who had been wary of being left with no defense beyond the snow walls around their encampment and Hakoda’s children.

Sokka was the first to spot Hama coming across the waves on a piece of ice. By the time she landed the entire tribe was waiting on the shore. The old woman was wrapped in furs from around the world and she stepped off her makeshift ship the way Sokka would have pictured a queen stepping out of her palanquin. Or at least the way he would have if he had any idea what a palanquin was.

Hama looked around at the gathered tribes-people her gaze finally coming to rest of Sokka’s Gran-Gran. “Kanna?” Her voice was thin from lack of use but it had an edge that intimidated Sokka. “Is that you?”

Gran-Gran’s eyes were wide, “Hama?” Her voice was barely a whisper, “We thought you had been killed.”

The woman’s gray eyes were darting about taking stock of the people around her. “I will tell you everything, but first I need some food and water.”

Katara was overflowing with excitement as they found a full waterskin and filled a bowl with tiger-seal stew. “Did you see, Sokka? She’s a waterbender!” Sokka almost had to run to keep up with her even though he was three years older and had much longer legs. “Do you think she’ll teach me? Oh, imagine what I could learn with a real teacher!” Katara twirled creating a small patch of ice around her that Sokka had to jump over.

Hama thanked them for the food and ate ravenously while the tribe waited in silence for her tale. When she had finished she cleared her throat. “Most of you are too young to remember first of the Fire Nation raids.” Her voice was stronger now, it was cold and sharp like broken shards of ice. The gathered crowd listened with rapt attention as she reminded them of their history. Hama spoke about freezing the old Fire Navy ship with such detail that Sokka found it hard to believe that it had been there for almost sixty years. She told them about the never-ending terror watching the southern benders being carted off. “We did our best to hold them off, but our numbers dwindled as the raids continued. Finally, I too was captured.” Sokka looked around Gran-Gran and Kato were the only ones old enough to have been there through the worst of the raids, they were both crying. “I was led away in chains. The last waterbender of the Southern Water tribe. They put us in terrible prisons in the Fire Nation. I was the only one who managed to escape.” Hama was crying now too. Sokka desperately wanted to know how she could have gotten away but no one seemed able to break the silence. After Hama had regained her composure she continued, “I’ve spent years getting out of the Fire Nation and crossing the Earth Kingdom. I took boats as far as I could south, every place I landed I had to stop and work to raise enough money to buy passage on another ship. Three months ago I found myself on the southernmost island in Earth Kingdom territory, no one was going any further south so I made my own boat from ice and set out alone. I stopped on what islands I could. I had to spend a week on one waiting for a storm to pass, but now I am home.” A smile broke across her wrinkled face. “I can help you rebuild, I can train a new generation of waterbenders. More must have been born, I will take on anyone, with any amount of talent.”

Katara was bouncing where she sat, her eyes darting from Gran-Gran to Hama.

Gran-Gran stood and moved into the space between the crowd and Hama, “Many more have been born,” Hama’s face lit up, “But the raids did not stop when you were captured. There is only one waterbender left in the south pole. My granddaughter, Katara.”

Katara shot up and bowed to the old waterbender. “Please teach me, Master.” She was the only person in the room that seemed unaffected by Gran-Gran’s words. She was only ten and no one had had the heart to tell her that she was in constant danger just by existing.

Hama stood, “Very well then. Your first lesson begins now.” She cast one last glance around the room. Sokka wished he knew what she was thinking. He felt an unusual bitterness that he had not been born a bender like his sister. “If you would leave us, we have no time to waste.”

What was left of the Southern Water Tribe filed out of the meetinghouse. There was a nervous excitement in the air it had been so long since there had been a real waterbending master in the south pole. It felt like someone had breathed a spark of life back into the tribe.

Sokka sulked off to fortify his watchtower.

Sokka muttered to himself while he packed the snow steps that led to the top of his wall. He wasn’t jealous of Katara’s power, he told himself. Bending was just splashing around he didn’t understand why the adults were acting like Hama had been given back to the village by the spirits themselves. Sokka tried to erase Hama’s look of disappointment from his memory. It wasn’t his fault he wasn’t a bender, he didn’t want to be a bender. His spear and his traps were going to be what kept his tribe alive until the warriors returned home.

Sokka lost track of time smoothing out the snow and packing it as tight as he could. He stopped when he heard footsteps coming up behind him. He glanced at the sky as he turned, the sun was sitting on the horizon he had left the meetinghouse around noon.

Sokka muttered a child’s curse under his breath. He had been out most of the day and half the night. He had meant to check his traps.

It was Gran-Gran who had come to see him, “You missed dinner.” Sokka hadn’t noticed the gnawing pain in his stomach until she mentioned it.

“Sorry.” Sokka ignored the little voice in the back of his mind that reminded him that Katara usually went to go find him when he got caught up in something. “Is there any left.” His grandmother silently handed him a bag of seal jerky. “Thanks. I’m just gonna go pick up the fish traps.”

He turned to leave but Gran-Gran stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, “Hama and Katara have already brought in the fish traps. They’ll need restocking in the morning, but now you need some sleep.” Gran-Gran had never been, in Sokka’s memory, a very energetic woman but looking at her he saw something in her eyes that he hadn’t seen before. Hope.

Sokka followed his grandmother back to their tent. He didn’t want to think about what Hama’s arrival meant for him. A small voice in the back of his mind said that he should be relieved, thirteen was too young to be responsible for the entire tribe, small as they may be. Another told him that he was just jealous of Katara and the training she was going to get. Or maybe-

His thoughts were cut short when he pushed past the flap of the tent. All of Katara’s things were gone. Gran-Gran seemed to understand his look but not share his feelings, “Hama said that it would be best if she and Katara moved into the meeting house so that they could practice in peace.” There was a small smile on her face as Gran-Gran imagined Katara becoming a powerful bender, “There’s a tent set up for tonight and they are going to start making repairs tomorrow.”

Sokka’s jaw hung open and he stood there for a long moment as Gran-Gran started arranging things for the night. Hama had been there for a day and already she had thrown everything out of order in Sokka’s life. She had emptied his traps, taken his role as leader, and now, for the first time that Sokka could remember he would be sleeping in a room without his sister.

Gran-Gran rested her hand on his shoulder. “It has been a very exciting day, things are looking up for us for the first time in a long time. Get some sleep.”

Sokka climbed under his pile of pelts. It took him a long time to fall asleep everything felt wrong like Hama had come in and moved everything in his life just a bit to the left, but he couldn’t understand why he felt that way. Hama had said she was going to help them rebuild. Sokka didn’t know if it counted as rebuilding after sixty years, but it should be a good thing. It would mean better defenses and proper houses like adults talked about, the ones that got torn down by the Fire Nation and time. After a while, sheer exhaustion took over and Sokka fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Sokka woke up to the smell of stewed sea-prunes. He pulled on his boots and his parka and followed his nose to the center of the village. He marveled at how happy everyone was compared to the morning before. Women were singing while they sewed. Gran-Gran was swaying in time while she stirred breakfast. Sokka didn’t see Hama and Katara anywhere, but the hole in the roof of the meetinghouse was definitely smaller than it had been the night before.

Several people shouted, “Good morning!” at him. Sokka tried to shake his misgivings about Hama. If she could do this much for them just by being there she had to be good.

Sokka ate his breakfast quickly before he went about his day. It wasn’t much different than the way he had spent the last week. He went out and put bait in the fish traps then he checked the traps that he had on land. There weren’t as many to check, but they were spread pretty far apart. Mostly they caught polar foxes and the occasional otter penguin.

Life proceeded smoothly for three weeks. Sokka checked his traps. He checked the walls. He tried to train the little kids, that wasn’t going so well but he had hopes for when they were older. Not that much actually changed in the day to day life of the tribe. Sokka was still the one in charge of getting the meat, some of the women fished closer to the shore and brought up seaweed and sea-prunes others cooked or mended clothes. The only difference was the sound of Hama and Katara practicing in the meetinghouse and the slow progress of its reconstruction.

Sokka had been wrong about Hama. He wouldn’t admit that he was jealous of Katara, but he had been wrong about Hama she would do good here. Her shifty look must have come from the decades spent in Fire Nation prison and another on the run. Hama wasn’t going to do anything to hurt the tribe or Katara.

About three weeks after Hama arrived Sokka decided to change up his routine a bit. They had plenty of fish and Gran-Gran had told him that she wanted to make a special dinner for Hama as thanks for all she had done. For that, she needed an arctic seal.

Seal hunting was not something that Sokka had ever done on his own, it was only a few weeks before his dad had left that he had killed his first one. It was calming in a lot of ways. Usually, Sokka’s mind went a mile a minute, but seal hunting was not the sort of activity that you wanted to be unfocused for. Their tusks could really hurt and they weren’t exactly light creatures, but if they decided to charge you could end up in quite a bit of trouble.

So Sokka moved across the snow with single-minded purpose. He held his spear in one hand as he watched the breathing hole. When one finally pulled itself out onto the ice Sokka waited only long enough to make sure that it wasn’t a bull seal before he pounced. His war cry echoed across the open tundra. It startled the arctic seal too, but Sokka was quick enough to get to it before it could retreat into the safety of the water.

Killing a seal was a much messier affair then fishing or killing the things that he caught in his traps. It was too big for Sokka to hold on to so it flopped around on the ice leaving a big stain of red on the landscape. Sokka tried to be quick about it. After he got it with his spear he cut its throat with his dagger. Once he was sure it was dead he pulled it to a sled that he had left nearby and started tying it down.

It was only after he finished that Sokka realized how late it had gotten. It was late enough in the year that an hour or so of twilight wedged itself between the days. The sky was starting to turn purple as Sokka worked his way back home, he could see the faint outline of the full moon hanging around by the horizon.

When he was about halfway back Sokka heard a sound on the other side of a rise. He checked his mental map. He had put a trap somewhere around here yesterday, maybe he had caught something. It seemed cruel to leave whatever it was there so he left the sled and started over the rise.

When he got in sight of the trap he froze and dropped into the snow. There was nothing in the trap, but sitting next to it in the snow was Katara. In the past few weeks, Sokka had only seen her at meals. The baby fat had started to drop away from her cheeks and her eyes had become harder and more focused, like a wolf’s. He poked his head back up.

Katara was facing the other way. She must be waiting for Hama, he thought, she knew better than to wander out into the tundra alone. Sokka watched silently, he didn’t understand why they would be out here. There was plenty of snow for them to bend closer to the village and even if they wanted a little more privacy why would they hang around one of his traps? Wouldn’t it get in the way? And why would Hama leave Katara alone, she wasn’t practicing anything she was just sitting there watching the horizon.

Katara squeaked as Sokka saw a polar fox run over the rise. He squinted at it, he had to admit that he had not seen many polar foxes outside of his traps, but there was something wrong about the way this one was running. Its head was darting side to side and it was yelling in panic. Then it ran right into the trap. It didn’t stop to inspect the bait or try to find a way to get at it without getting caught it just went right in. As soon as the door closed it was like every muscle in its body relaxed at once. It blinked in confusion then started running around trying to find a way out.

Hama came up over the next rise, and Sokka ducked down again. Her voice carried across the frozen landscape, “Do you understand?” She sounded hungry.

Katara sounded the same way she had the day she froze Sokka’s feet to the ground for making fun of her bending, “I think so.”

“Then try it yourself. Reach out and feel the water inside it. Picture the pulse of blood through its veins like the push and pull of the tide and take control of it.”

Sokka’s own blood turned to ice as he peeked back over the rise. Katara had her hand stretched out toward the caged polar fox her fingers were sharp and she was shaking. Sokka couldn’t see her face but he remembered the fierce look of concentration she got when she was trying to learn a new bending move. Inside the cage, the fox started screaming again as its body tensed up. Horror and realization dawned on Sokka at the same moment. Somehow waterbending could be used to control the blood inside living things.

“Very good,” Hama said, “Make it lay down.” The creature was unnaturally pressed to the ground. “Now have it sit up on its hind legs.”

Sokka couldn’t watch anymore. He scurried back to his sled as silently as he could and set off as fast as the seal’s weight would allow back to the camp.

The last thing he heard Hama say was, “Congratulations Katara. You’re a bloodbender”

He put the seal in the tent where all the meat was kept and walked back to his own like he was in a trance. Gran-Gran was already asleep when he arrived.

Panic started to set in as he took off his boots and his parka. It had been a long time since there had been a master bender in the south pole, but Sokka had heard stories about what they could do. Bringing ships safely back to harbor in storms, making waves twenty feet tall, building houses, real ice houses, in a day, but he had never heard anything about bloodbending. It felt wrong in a way that nothing but the Fire Nation had ever felt wrong. It felt like someone was tying knots in his insides. He curled up in a ball and tried not to think about that.

What if she saw him. Spirits, what if this was some great waterbender secret? What would Hama do if she found out what he saw?

Sokka couldn’t tell if the sound was coming from outside or just echoing around his head, but somewhere in the night, he could hear a fox screaming.

* * *

Halfway across the world, the crown prince of the Fire Nation was screaming too.


	2. Zuko

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka tries to talk to Katara about how very not cool bloodbending is.  
Zuko deals with the fallout from the Agni Kai and Iroh is a good uncle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry it took three months to get out a second chapter. College kicked my ass a bit harder than I thought it would. Hopefully, I can get a stockpile of chapters done over the break so that doesn't happen again.  
Also, yay, Zuko's point of view.  
Thanks again to VasNirada for beta reading this.

It became Sokka’s mission to find Katara alone. It turned out to be a lot harder than he thought it would be. Katara and Hama trained together all day. Katara would sit next to her at meals and in the rare moments she stopped to talk to him Hama was never out of earshot. She would be having a conversation with someone else seeming like she wasn’t paying any attention to what her student was doing, but as soon as Katara finished telling him a story Hama would be over, saying that it was time for them to get back to training. Sokka just needed five minutes alone with her. She was just a kid, he needed to explain– explain what. Was a ten-year-old really going to listen to his gut feeling, would it be that bad if Hama only used it on animals?

Sokka played the conversation out in his head as he restocked his fishing traps.

“Hey Katara, you know Hama, the only other waterbender that you’ve ever met who’s teaching you all this cool stuff and is making life a whole lot better for our tribe. Well, I don’t like her and I think that bloodbending thing is icky so why don’t we just drive her out and never speak to her again?” Sokka groaned. “All I’ve got against her is that I don’t like it and its weird to keep it from people.”

Still, he could talk to her about it, maybe if he could get a better explanation about what bloodbending was it wouldn’t seem so wrong.

A couple of weeks later he got his chance.

Hama had let Katara come to spend the night back in Gran-Gran’s tent saying she needed a night alone.

Having Gran-Gran there had not been a part of Sokka’s plan, but it would have to do. Katara wasn’t the same as when she had started training with Hama. She was more calm and controlled and she looked hungry in a way Sokka had never seen her before, but there was still a layer of his excitable younger sister beneath the surface, especially when Gran-Gran asked for a demonstration of what she had been learning.

Katara’s face split into a grin as she rushed to show them. Water jumped out of a jug in the corner and flew around the tent. She made waves with it and giggled as she made it dart around behind them. Its movement reminded Sokka of a fish swimming in a stream. It wasn’t a long show, but it did make him understand why the grownups had been so excited about having a true master waterbender back in the village. Katara had been able to waterbend her whole life, but with Hama’s instruction she had learned more in the last few weeks then she had in the last ten years.

She finished her act with a bow and dropped all of her water on Sokka’s head.

“Hey!” he shouted.

Katara just giggled as she pulled the water from his clothes back into the jug.

“That was wonderful, Katara.” Gran-Gran pulled the girl into a hug. “You’re learning so much, I am so proud of you.”

“Thanks, Gran-Gran. Hama says that the older I get, and the more I practice the more powerful I’ll be.” Katara’s blue eyes looked over at her brother, “What did you think Sokka?”

“It’s pretty cool, I guess.” Sokka stroked his chin. This was his chance, “But how much can you actually control?” He had to word this right. “Like, I know you can do ice and snow and stuff, but could you bend soup? Or seaweed? Those have got water in them, or could you take the water out of them? What about fish, fish are mostly water, could you control a fish?”

Katara gave him a thoughtful look that seemed out of place on her little face, “I know I could bend soup, I’ve seen Hama do that. I know Hama can take the water out of plants, I’ve only tried a couple times and it hasn’t worked so well. Probably you could move it without pulling all the water out, but it would be pretty hard.” She leaned back and gave a big yawn. “I’m tired. I’m gonna go to sleep. I’ve got more training to do in the morning.”

“You should get to sleep too, Sokka.” Gran-Gran rested a hand on his shoulder, “I need you to go hunt another arctic seal tomorrow, Koni’s baby will be here soon and we need more pelts.” The siblings both started to settle down into their beds. “I’m going to go get some water that hasn’t been on Sokka, I’ll be back in a moment.”

Sokka spoke as soon as the tent flap closed, “You didn’t answer all of my questions.”

Katara shot him a suspicious look, he tried to look as innocent as possible. He couldn’t tell if Katara bought it but she did answer. “The further something is from water the harder it is to bend. To control the blood inside a person, it would take a very powerful bender even then they would probably need a full moon.”

Sokka didn’t comment on Katara’s shift from fish to person. “Why the full moon?”

Katara perked up. “That’s when waterbending is at its most powerful. Hama told me that during the full moon she had seen people bend hundred-foot tall waves and make mini storms around themselves.”

“That’s awesome. I hope bending blood isn’t possible.”

“Why”

“It just seems creepy.”

“It’s not like it would hurt anyone.”

“Maybe not on the outside, but think about how scary it would be for your body to start moving without you telling it to. It doesn’t seem right.”

Katara took in a deep breath, but she just let it out again slowly. “It doesn’t matter Sokka, it's probably not even possible anyway. Goodnight, Sokka.” Katara shuffled around in her bed for a moment before settling down. Sokka did the same and pretended to fall asleep.

Gran-Gran came back a minute later with the water, she was quiet so she wouldn’t disturb them. Sokka made himself stay awake until both of them had started breathing the slow steady pattern of sleep.

Katara had been suspicious when he asked about controlling animals, she had immediately connected it to controlling people, and she didn’t like the idea that Sokka found it uncomfortable. It wasn’t a lot to go off of, he really didn’t like the idea that she would use it against people, but until he heard Hama say that she would or saw that she did there was nothing he could do really. It might be a bit creepy, but he could see how easily it could be bent into something good for the tribe. In a single night, she could probably get enough arctic seals to feed and clothe the whole village for a few months to just sit there while she cut their throats.

She could do the same to people.

* * *

Everything smelled like fire. He couldn’t move, there was no pain, but fear had him glued in place while the world spun around him. All he felt was the heat of the flame pulling the air from his lungs. His father’s words echoed in his head.

“You will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher.”

He was looking at his father’s feet, kneeling, begging for forgiveness. He couldn’t remember why.

More words flooded through his mind, disjointed and unclear.

Honor.

The fire engulfed him.

Insolence.

He could see his mother’s face beyond the flames.

Banishment.

Azula was mocking him. Cackling as he burned.

Avatar.

Zuko woke up screaming. There was no fire, there was nothing. A pitch-black room in complete silence. He needed light.

Zuko pushed himself off of the bed toward the door. He couldn’t work the handle right, his hands were shaking and he couldn’t see. He felt hot tears rolling down his cheek. Panic rose in his chest.

What had happened after the Agni Kai? Where was he? His father had said he must be punished. Was this his punishment? Being locked in a dark cage. He had to find a way out. Zuko tried pushing on the door.

The door opened and the prince ran headfirst into his uncle.

“Prince Zuko, are you all right?”

There was light in the hallway, a dull red glow from the lamps that lined the walls. Zuko took a deep breath, he knew where he was. This was his ship, he could hear the groaning of the metal and feel the rocking of the waves beneath them. His uncle had gotten him this ship after he had been banished. He had been banished, his only way home was to find the Avatar, who had been presumed dead for the past hundred years.

“Prince Zuko?”

He wiped the tears off his face. “I’m fine, Uncle.” Zuko turned and walked out to the deck of the ship.

The cold air helped to clear his head. It had been almost two months since the Agni Kai. They had been on the ship for one. The first month was foggy, he had drifted in and out of sleep for weeks, his dreams were filled with fragmented memories of the duel and stranger things. His mother standing over him, Azula laughing with glee as dragons swallowed him whole, and dancing platypus-bears. When he had been well enough to travel his uncle arranged for a small ship, none of the crew knew what had happened to him, why he had been banished.

The nightmares were almost the worst part. He would wake up scared and disoriented. It was humiliating. He couldn’t decide what the real worst thing was though.

He reached up a hand and felt the bandage that covered the left side of his face. Uncle said that he needed to give it time, that his body could heal in ways that he wouldn’t expect. That didn’t stop the shame and fear that rose in his throat every time they changed the dressing. When the bandage was on he could convince himself that it was what was muffling his hearing and that there was nothing wrong with his eye, but when it was taken off when the healer tested him that the problem reared its head. He could see, but the left side of his vision was covered in a haze and his hearing was much worse than it was on his right.

His firebending was also a problem.

Zuko reached out a hand. All he wanted was a little flame, like one from a candle. He grabbed his arm to stop the shaking. A flamed appeared and danced across his fingertips.

Zuko jerked his hand back like he had been burned. He took a deep breath to keep the panic at bay, pushing anger into its place. How was he supposed to capture a man who had spent the last hundred years mastering the elements if he couldn’t even manage to control one?

A hand landed on his arm. “I brought you some tea.” His uncle was there holding a steaming cup.

He took it with a silent nod. “How long until we reach the Northern Air Temple?”

“Another week at least, longer if we run into any bad weather.” It was hard to read the old man’s expression in the darkness, but Zuko thought he looked worried, “You should go back to sleep when you have finished your tea. You need to keep your strength up while you are healing.”

Zuko didn’t respond and Uncle didn’t pry. After a few minutes watching the dark water, his uncle turned and went back inside the ship. He hadn’t told his uncle about the nightmares and his uncle never asked. He must have known, with how often Zuko woke up screaming, but all he ever did was put on a pot of tea. Usually, Zuko could manage to get the door open and the hallway was enough to ground him and he could make it to the galley on his own. His uncle would be waiting there with a pot steeping and a game of Pai Sho set. He wouldn’t say much, letting Zuko control what he did. Uncle made pleasant conversation and he had learned a lot about Pai Sho in the last month, he was nowhere close to being a match for his uncle but the calm nature of the game helped him ground himself.

Zuko waited about an hour after he finished his tea, but he did eventually follow his uncle’s advice.

* * *

After Zuko dressed the next morning he made his way to the room his uncle had been using for his firebending training. Uncle had told him that he should wait longer before returning to training, but he had been behind before the Agni Kai and he refused to let it push him any further back than it already had.

However, when he got to the room it was empty even the mats that they used for meditation had been taken out. Zuko turned and started searching his ship. Uncle had moved his lessons a few times before. He had made Zuko meditate at the top of the command tower, in the hold with the catapults, and on one memorable occasion in the pen Komodo-Rinos.

He wasn’t in any of those places now, instead, Zuko found his Uncle on the deck with one of the crewmen, he was pretty sure the man was the cook.

“Prince Zuko, I have just learned the most amazing thing about Toshiuji.” he waved at the man, “He also has training with dual swords, so today you will be sparring with him.”

“Uncle-” Zuko started to protest.

“I know you want to continue with your firebending training, but you must keep in mind that the best warrior is a well rounded one. So it would be best to keep up your training in all of your skills.” Uncle stretched and yawned, “Besides. I did not sleep well last night and I do not have the energy to train you today.” He fixed Zuko with a stern look.

Zuko knew that wasn’t true, but he wasn’t going to change his uncle’s mind. “Fine.”

It took him several minutes to get his swords and when he returned Toshiuji was stretching. The man looked nervous, Zuko supposed that he had never fought a prince before, he wouldn’t let the man hold back.

The first round went quickly. Zuko moved in with a quick attack, and Toshiuji moved to counter. The impact knocked the prince off his feet and the cook ended up with his sword pointed at Zuko’s chest looking mortified.

“You have let yourself fall out of practice, Prince Zuko. In a fight, you must be able to keep your feet even if you cannot keep your balance. Again.”

Zuko pulled himself back to his feet. This time they started out circling each other. Toshiuji was scared to make the first move.

“In most cases, I would recommend disengaging if your opponent seems unwilling to attack, but in this instance, one of you must strike for the training to have any value.”

Zuko moved first. Toshiuji blocked him again but he was able to keep his feet and move back to a defensive stance.

A few more steps, Zuko attacked again, Toshiuji blocked and countered with a strike of his own coming in on Zuko’s blindside. He felt the blade stop an inch from his neck.

“Good work Toshiuji. Prince Zuko, you must keep your guard up on your left side. Toshiuji is going easy on you because you are young and he can tell you are at a disadvantage. Most opponents will not pay you the same courtesy. Again.”

That was how the day passed. They would spar until someone won Uncle would tell them what they did wrong and what to do better. It was the harshest training Zuko had ever received from his uncle and it was amazing. At the end of the day, which included several breaks for tea and one for a lunch that Toshiuji apologized profusely for the quality of, Zuko felt much more confident. He had managed to take his opponent down several times and he felt a good kind of soreness in his muscles.


	3. Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka sets out to get a closer look at what Hama is teaching his sister but he runs into a problem when he falls asleep out on the ice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the getting chapters done over break plan didn't work at all. I don't have any kind of update schedule for this story but I do have the first thirteen chapters planned out, so I promise I'm not going to abandon it or anything.  
Once again, thanks to VasNirada for reading over this and assuring me that I am at least a little scary.

Sokka kept watching Hama and Katara. They kept out of the way mostly, Hama said it was to keep Katara from getting distracted, but Sokka thought it was more about keeping her isolated. Katara had talked all the time about learning how to waterbend, Hama could make all of her lessons optional and she would still be there half an hour before they started. Keeping themselves away from the rest of the tribe would make Katara feel like Hama was all she had.

A week after Katara’s night back with him and Gran-Gran there was a tribe meeting. The last one they had had been right before Sokka’s father had left with the rest of the tribe’s warriors. It had been a solemn thing, people sat around not saying a word and sharing solemn looks.

Chief Hakoda broke the silence. He stood at the spot in the center of the meetinghouse where the summer sun shone through the hole in the ceiling. “I have decided to take my warriors to the front to help with the war effort.” Everyone had already known this, but to hear it with this level of finality from their leader made it real and protests started to pop up around the room, “Please!” he shouted over the growing din. “I know that you are scared of what will happen if the Fire Nation sends another raid, but it has been four years since they came, and in the last raid they took only one person.” That quieted the room, several people looked over at Sokka as they thought of his mother. “At the moment the Fire Nation does not see us as a threat worthy of their time and resources. I don’t know if we could survive another attack, but we can lend aid to our allies in the Earth Kingdom. If the Fire Nation can be stopped there we have a chance of surviving this war ourselves.” His eyes scanned the room. “Are there any other objections?”

“Who will lead the tribe while you are gone?” Once again eyes were turned to Sokka, as the chief’s son everyone knew that he would lead the tribe someday but no one wanted that someday to be tomorrow. He wouldn’t even be fourteen until winter.

“My mother,” he said gesturing to Gran-Gran, “Kanna. My children, as well as many of you, know how to hunt with traps and I have made sure that Sokka knows how to take down a seal by himself.” His father’s warm hand landed on his shoulder. “Does that seem reasonable to you?”

The woman who had spoken nodded.

“Very well then. Warriors prepare yourselves, we will leave tomorrow.”

This meeting was nothing like that. It had the sense of feeling that had filled the tribe since Hama’s arrival. There was food set out on a table made of ice. People were talking and laughing as they waited for Hama to start the meeting properly. The younger children were playing around outside under Koni’s watchful eye.

Sokka had needed to put up a fight to be allowed in. Hama had said that he was too young to need to be included. He hadn’t even been ice dodging. When his father had been around he had easily agreed when Sokka argued that the more meetings he saw the better Chief he would make later. That didn’t work on Hama. In the end, the only argument that worked was that he was doing most of the hunting and trapping for the tribe and needed to know what they needed.

Hama called the meeting to order. She and Katara were sitting on one side of the room facing the rest of the assembled tribe. She stood and smiled, “I’m sure that you can all see that Katara and I have finished our work on the meetinghouse.” Hama gestured around. It was, by far, the nicest building Sokka had ever been inside. Not only had the roof been replaced, but they had also added furniture and carvings all around the walls. “For the time being I feel that my greatest responsibility is Katara’s training and that will revive the greatest portion of my attention.” Katara glowed under the feeling of being important.

“Wait.” Sokka was surprised to hear the sound of his own voice. All eyes in the room turned on him. “Are you going to stop building completely?” Hama nodded. “But what about the village’s defenses? You could help reinforce the walls or the watchtower. They’re in good shape now but if a big storm hits there’s going to be more damage than I can deal with on my own and we have no idea when the warriors are going to get back.”

Hama laughed dismissively, “If the wall becomes damaged we will, of course, help to repair it, but you yourself just said that it is fine now.”

Sokka did not feel smart enough to be having this conversation. “What I meant was that if you added fortification now when a big storm hits we won’t have to rebuild as much and less of the village would be damaged.” He gestured around them. “We can see what you can do, it might take a while, but it would save us time rebuilding later on.”

“Child,” Hama emphasized the word as she looked around at the gathered faces like she was trying to tell them _ See this boy is too young to be here _. “If we were to add too much to the village walls it would be plain for any Fire Nation ship to see that there are once again waterbenders in the South Pole. It is better to weather the damages of a storm than to invite another Fire Nation raid.” The room nodded along with Hama’s words. No one wanted to risk another attack, Sokka didn’t want to risk another attack, but he also knew that spring storms were likely to blow away tents. People lost their homes. Last year the game tent had been ripped up and pulled out to sea, they had lost a month’s worth of meat.

Sokka didn’t push the issue though, he didn’t want to risk not being allowed to come to the next meeting.

The rest of the village meeting went smoothly. They talked about the food they had in reserve and what they needed more of in the next month. Sokka would need to put out more traps and hunt another arctic seal soon because they were running low on pelts. They were almost done when Sokka noticed Katara glaring daggers at him from Hama’s right hand. He had dealt with Katara’s anger before, she was his little sister, of course she had frozen him in place for making fun of her waterbending, and he had chased her around the camp for eating the last of the seal jerky, but this seemed different. Sokka wasn’t sure if it was just because he was scared of an equal fight, he was thirteen sue him for wanting an edge against his magic sister, or because of the dark things he was sure Hama was teaching her, but whatever it was Katara was angry at him for he didn’t want to find out how she would seek retribution.

Sokka didn’t stick around long enough after the meeting for Katara to catch up to him. He still needed to restock his traps and he would need to bring a lantern if he wasn’t quick about it.

Sokka’s plan was to wait for the next full moon and follow Hama and Katara out onto the tundra and eavesdrop on them to see what exactly Hama was telling his sister. He wanted to know how she was explaining bloodbending. He wanted to hear her justification for it. Maybe if he had that it would seem less evil.

* * *

The day of the full moon Sokka got up with the sun. He ran through his chores as fast as he could. The current caught against him as he went out and restocked the fishing traps and it took him an hour longer than he thought it would. Sokka made a mental note that he should reorder his work when he wanted to get done early because no matter what he wanted the tides had a schedule of their own and they weren’t going to bend just so he could be lying in wait by moonrise. He only stopped and sat down for breakfast because Gran-Gran saw him as he tried to pass through the village on his way to check the traps out on the tundra.

The breakfast was good, dried seaweed and seal jerky. It reminded Sokka that he needed to go seal hunting again a few more times before it got too late into the fall. Hunting three hundred pound animals with tusks was not something that he particularly wanted to do by himself in the dark.

Checking the traps took several more hours and wasn’t very fruitful. All he had caught was a single arctic hen. When he got back to camp the midday meal had already been finished and Sokka got roped into helping expand Koni’s tent. The work was simple but exhausting because it required a lot of holding seal skins over his head while people shifted things around him. By the time he finished there was an hour left until sundown.

Sokka took some seal jerky and told Gran-Gran that he had forgotten to restock some of the traps.

There was only one way out of the southern water tribe village through the break in the wall that faced out onto the tundra. Gran-Gran had once told him that before the war there had been proper watchtowers all around a wall that stretched fifteen feet into the air and a gate that could be closed to keep out enterprising arctic foxes. Sokka had helped build the walls they had now. They were maybe eight feet tall, there were no watchtowers.

Sokka took up a post a few yards from the village exit. Laying on his back behind a snowdrift to keep out of sight, but keeping close enough to hear if anyone left. He started in on the seal jerky as he watched the sunset. It wasn’t late enough in the year to get a proper night, but there would be stars out. That brought Sokka some comfort. His dad had explained that in the north summer didn’t mean endless daylight and winter wasn’t a single long night. It was nice to imagine Hakoda laying on the deck of his ship and seeing the same stars that were starting to appear above Sokka.

Sokka chewed slowly on his dinner and listened to the wind rushing over the ice. It was peaceful and without noticing it Sokka drifted off into sleep.

* * *

Sokka woke up feeling like an arctic seal was sitting on his chest. He opened his eyes.

The full moon was staring back at him from the cold arctic sky, he must have been asleep for at least an hour. Sokka cursed himself, he must have missed Katara and Hama, but it wasn’t snowing so he should still be able to see their tracks. He went to sit up.

Nothing happened.

Panic gripped his chest as he tried again. It felt like every muscle in his body had been pulled tight, but he wasn’t the one who had done it.

Still nothing.

He looked down at where his hand was resting on his stomach. He tried to close it into a fist but his fingers didn’t even twitch. He couldn’t move at all. He tried to call out but he couldn’t move his tongue either or make his lungs push out enough air to shout.

Panic made his breath come short and quick. Gran-Gran thought he was out restocking traps, she probably went to sleep thinking he was just taking his sweet time. How long would it take before she got worried about him? How long would it take before he froze to death? His clothes were meant for the cold weather but they would only keep him alive a little longer if he couldn’t move.

The wind changed direction slightly and started blowing into the hood of his parka. It carried with it a whispering voice, cold and high like the wind itself.

_ Sokka. Sokka. I can see you. _

He darted his eyes around, thankfully he could still move them, trying to find the source of the voice.

_ You should not have gone out alone. _

He tried to fight against the force that was holding him down but it did nothing. He tried to scream but all he could manage was to push the air faster from his lungs.

_ I can see you. _

Something started to move above Sokka’s head.

_ It is cold out on the ice, Sokka. _

It was too far away for him to see it properly, all he could make out was something thin and white. Like it was made of ice.

_ Sokka. _

He could hear footsteps in the snow, it sounded like it was right next to his head.

_ You cannot stay here. _

The skeletal white thing stood out against the purple twilight. It didn’t move right, swaying violently from side to side with each step.

_ If you stay here you will die. _

Its head came properly into view as the thing leaned over him. It looked almost like a woman but bone-thin and entirely white except for its eyes. Its eyes were shiny black, like squid ink.

_ You have to get up, Sokka. _

He tried but nothing happened. The thing moved closer and his vision started to blur. Its eyes seemed to be pulling all of the light out of the world until it’s thin white face was the only bright thing left on the tundra.

_ You cannot stay here. _

And the world went dark.

* * *

Sokka woke up with a start. He looked frantically around himself, there was no sign of the thing he had seen in the night, not even tracks. They couldn’t have been blown away or covered because there was no drift of ice by where he had been lying and there was no snow on the front of his parka. 

It had to have been a bad dream

Probably it was a bad dream.

His entire body felt sore like he had spent the night wrestling with a Polar Bear Wolf. The sun was back in the sky, it had yet to fully clear the horizon, but the night was over. Sokka muttered a curse.

He had come out here to spy on Katara and Hama, but instead, he had fallen asleep, had a weird, freaky dream, and learned nothing.

He kicked around the snow where he had been lying, just in case and headed back into the village, ignoring the shaking in his limbs and the tightness in his chest that had yet to fade.


	4. Firebending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko gets his first real look at what life is going to be like after his injury

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again thank you to VasNirada who is excited enough about this to make me sit down and write it out instead of just keeping it all in my head.  
Just as a heads up Trigger Warning for some ableist language from Zuko in this chapter, he's having a lot of self-hate problems that are linked to being visually and hearing impaired.

Zuko got up before sunrise. He had been lying awake in his bed for most of the night, too agitated to sleep. 

His bandages were going to come off for good that day. 

He should be excited but instead, he had a knot in his chest that he couldn’t force down.

When he had first gotten injured the healer had said that it was possible that the only long term effects of the burn would be a nasty scar. She said a lot of things about him being young and healthy and his body's ability to heal, but as the months had dragged on she had stopped talking about a full recovery. His visits with her had become all about ranges and partials and permanent damage and scars.

The last time she had checked his vision the world had seemed like it was covered by a thick fog, he could see shapes and colors and little more. Uncle had put his hand on Zuko’s left shoulder and he had flinched away because he hadn’t been able to see it coming at all.

It was infuriating, how could he possibly prove his worth to his father if he couldn’t even see properly?

Learning how to fight with one eye covered was one thing but he couldn’t stand the thought that he would have to live like that forever. 

He spent the next couple hours pacing around his room trying to wrestle down the knot of fear and anger that was trying to push its way into his throat. He knew he could fight with only one eye, Uncle had been pushing him every few days to practice with Toshiuji. “You must prepare yourself for all of the possibilities” he had said.

Zuko tried. He knew he could fight if they ran into trouble, he knew that he could deal with it if the bandages needed to stay on longer than they had thought. He couldn’t deal with the thought that he might end up never being able to see properly again. 

He had thoroughly convinced himself, without talking to the healer about it at all, that he would be able to hear fine after the bandages had been off for a while, that it was just being constantly covered that made his hearing so much worse on his left side. When the treacherous thoughts snuck up that this might be as much as he could ever heal he pushed them away, he went through his old firebending forms, he couldn’t bring himself to use fire but he had drilled the movements until he could no longer feel his feet. He had pushed those thoughts into a far corner of his mind, where he kept his memories of the night his mother disappeared and what he could remember of the Agni Kai.

* * *

Zuko was so deep in his thoughts that the knock on his door startled him. He took a moment to compose himself before opening it.

His uncle stood on the other side with the healer he had brought on board. “Prince Zuko, would you like some tea before-”

“No, I want to get this over with.” Zuko cut him off.

The healer nodded solemnly and led him to the cabin she had been using. 

Zuko hadn’t spoken much with any of the crew. He didn’t know where any of them were from or why they had agreed to sail on a ship under the command of a banished prince. He didn’t care, so long as they followed his orders. 

He had spent the most time with the healer, out of necessity but he hadn’t bothered to learn her name, he didn’t like her. She looked at him with pity every time she changed his bandages, he was thankful, however, that she never tried to talk with him about anything but his injury, it made it easier to ignore her existence the rest of the time.

“Sit.” She pointed to a bench in the middle of the room. Zuko did as he was told. 

Taking off the bandages only took a few minutes. Once she was done with that she set about checking the skin itself. She poked and prodded and he told her if it hurt or not. When she was done with that she started testing his ear. Zuko tried to focus on anything but how muffled everything was or the frown that the healer had one her face. She made some notes as she worked, Uncle just stood against one wall keeping his face carefully blank.

Once she was done with that she looked at him harshly, “Open your eye.”

Zuko hadn’t realized that it was closed. Dread filled him as he forced himself to open it. The healer had the window in the room open and it was filled with sunlight that had been giving him a headache since she had taken off the bandage. With his eye open, he could tell how bad it was. 

The thick fog that had covered his vision the last time she had checked it was still there. He knew that he should be able to see the door to the room to his left but he couldn’t tell it apart from the metal of the wall.

Zuko grit his teeth as the healer went through her checks. The knot in his chest seemed to have gotten bigger and hotter, he found it hard to breathe normally and he thought that if he were to open his mouth all that would come out was a scream. When she had finished with her examination the healer looked carefully over her notes before she spoke.

“Prince Zuko, while I can say with confidence that there is no more need for you to wear a bandage on your burn it does appear that the damage from the burn will be more permanent than I had initially thought.” Zuko clenched his fists in his lap as she went on. “Your sight and hearing on your left side have improved since the initial injury, however, there hasn’t been any significant improvement in your last three evaluations.” 

He heard the echo of his old firebending instructor in those words.

“This doesn’t mean that you will see no improvement from this point forward, but any that you do see will likely be slow and so minor that you may not even notice it happening.”

She paused which Zuko took to mean that she was done talking. He stood and bowed sharply, “Thank you. Your services will no longer be required. You may leave the next time we go into port.” With that, he turned on his heel and left the room.

Behind him, Zuko could hear his Uncle apologizing to the woman but he didn’t care. He stormed onto the deck and yelled at the top of his lungs out into the waves. He started pacing the deck.

He could see Lieutenant Jee watching him from the top of the command tower but he said nothing.

He felt his world crumbling around him. No one wanted a half-blind, half-deaf Fire Lord. His father had once told him that he was lucky to be born, he was no firebending prodigy like Azula. Even if he could succeed in capturing the Avatar why would his father remove him from exile knowing that he was broken? 

Honor could be restored but the healer had said that he would never be whole again. 

If he found the Avatar how could he possibly capture him like this? The man had had over a hundred years to master the elements, to master how to fight. He would see Zuko’s weakness immediately and use it to destroy him.

If he ever saw Azula again she would do the same thing.

He yelled and punched at the air.

He watched as the ball of fire left his fist.

It didn’t scare him, he didn’t have any room left in him to be afraid, all he felt was rage and hate.

He hated his weakness. 

He hated the healer. 

He hated Azula.

He started going through a basic form.

He hated this ship.

He hated the crew that were watching him from the shadows.

He hated being at sea.

He hated the Avatar.

He hated the sun that was beating down on his scar for the first time.

He hated the fog that refused to burn away.

He hated the muffled sound of his left foot hitting the deck.

He was panting by the time he finished the form, covered in sweat. He could still feel the anger boiling in his stomach but he could see its purpose now. It was fuel, his anger would help him find the Avatar. An old man that had spent his life hiding from the war wouldn’t stand a chance against the sea of anger and hate Zuko had inside him.

He almost wanted to laugh, a man who was supposed to be the last hope of the world, but had chosen to spend a century hiding from the might of the Fire Nation wasn’t a threat. 

He was a coward.

Uncle was standing on the other side of the deck. His face was set in stone as he watched the prince. “Again.”

“What?” Zuko straightened.

“You will do the form again, Prince Zuko.” the old man did not move, “You have gotten rusty.”

Anger flared in him again and he started the form again. He had wasted so much valuable time wallowing in fear. He should be able to do this form with ease, it was for children. He should be able to do much more. He needed to be stronger so that he could face the Avatar.

* * *

He stayed on the deck practicing the form until well past noon when his uncle decided they were done.

“That is enough training for today, Prince Zuko.” He bowed, “You should get some rest.” When Zuko opened his mouth to protest Iroh cut him off, “We will train again tomorrow. If you truly cannot find anything else to do you should practice your breathing, remember, firebending comes from the breath. For now, I have promised Lieutenant Jee a game of Pai Sho.” With that Uncle gave a big smile, turned, and headed down to the galley.

Zuko took a moment to look out over the waves. The Avatar was out there somewhere, and now that he had healed his search could begin in earnest.

When he got back to his room everything came tumbling down, he grabbed a pillow to muffle his sobs as the tears started to stream down his cheek, only his right cheek. Just another way he was broken.


	5. Koni's Baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title is pretty self-explanatory on this one, Koni's baby is coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really thought that quarantine was gonna give me more time to write, but man, it turns out online classes took more out of me than in-person ones. Anyway, I rewatched the first episode cause its on Netflix now and I have Ideas TM so lets go.  
List of things that I have now researched way too much about because of this fic. Twilight, hours of sunlight at the south pole, damage caused by burns, types of visual impairment, types of hearing impairment, foxes, and now childbirth.  
If any of you were interested, the hours of sunlight they get at the south pole are based on those that we see at 80 degrees south on Earth. The day that happens in this chapter has 3 hours of civil twilight, 6 hours of nautical twilight, 6 hours of astronomical twilight, and 9 hours of night. Also, facial burns can really fuck you up and foxes have V-shaped sagittal crests.  
Also, fun thing I realized, Hama is about ten years older than Gran-Gran.  
Edit: I fixed inconsistencies in how the ice lady's speach was written

Sokka did his work quickly, there was only about three hours of proper light left in the day at this time of year and he had been using it for seal hunting. It wasn’t going to be the most pleasant winter without the warriors there to hunt. They were going to end up eating a lot more jerky and fish then they usually did because there was no way Sokka would be able to hunt a seal on his own once it really got dark. He had been getting one every other day or so over the past month and Gran-Gran had been turning them into jerky so they would have enough food to last them the next four months. They would be fine but jerky wouldn’t be the same as getting some fresh seal meat during the long winter night.

He started out at dawn, checking the land traps, two of them had arctic hens in them. Next he went out and restocked the fishing traps, Katara and Hama had already been by to clear them out. Then he got down to business.

When he reached the first breathing hole he found a whole herd of arctic seals enjoying the sunshine. He crept back down to his sled and moved on to the next one. It was deserted.

“Hopefully there are still some down there.” He hid himself behind a snow drift and waited. Occasionally seals would break the surface for a breath but nothing pulled itself out onto the ice. 

The sun was getting low and it would be too dark for seal hunting soon, “One last try and then I’ll head back.” Sokka said to himself.

He put fish down on the ice, a small trail leading away from the breathing hole. Then he dropped back down behind the snow drift and threw another fish into the hole. He counted to ten and threw another one. He did this three more times and was about to give up when an arctic seal broke the surface and caught the scent of fresh fish. It pulled itself out of the water and happily started eating the fish Sokka had left for it.

Sokka charged, he came at it from the wrong angle and almost ended up getting gored by its tusks, but he managed to sink his spear into its throat. It took a while to get the seal onto his sled, it was the biggest one he had ever gotten, he hoped Gran-Gran would be pleased.

The dead seal on his sled left drops of red blood on the snow and he dragged himself back towards home. He could make out its silhouette as the sun lingered on the horizon behind the village. As he got closer Sokka started to hear a commotion coming over the walls. He picked up his pace.

Hakya spotted him as he pulled his sled through the gate. “Sokka, do you know where Hama is?” she asked.

“No, is everything ok?” It seemed like the entire village was in motion, people were going in and out of tents, calling for Hama and Gran-Gran and hot water. She walked with him as he kept dragging his sled toward the game tent, whatever was happening he didn’t want to lose any of the meat he had caught.

“Koni’s gone into labor and we can’t find Hama anywhere.” Sokka looked over at Koni’s tent and there was a lot of movement going on around it.

Gran-Gran’s voice rang across the village, “Sokka!” She motioned for him to come over. “Hakya, take the seal to the game tent, there's no need for Hama, we’ve done this plenty of times without a waterbender in sight, everything will be alright.” She nodded and took the reins from Sokka, “We need fresh water and some clean pelts.”

The next hour was a blur of shouting and hauling things to Koni’s tent. At first it was the same excitement and nervous energy that always happened when a baby was about to be born. Then it changed, the excitement seemed to drain out of people’s faces and worry started to creep in. Sokka didn’t know much about babies or giving birth but something was wrong. There had been several kids born in the past few years and they had all gone fine without any help from waterbenders, but the calls for Hama started up again and they were getting more and more panicked. After a while Sokka ran out of things to do and he collapsed against the side of a tent to get a moment of rest. 

A minute later Gran-Gran came out of Koni’s tent, he could hear crying from inside, but it definitely wasn’t coming from a baby. “Sokka, you need to go out and find wherever Hama and Katara went off to.” He pulled himself to his feet, “When you find her tell her that the baby is coming out feet first and she needs to come back to the village as soon as possible.”

Sokka went as fast as he could over the drifts of snow and ice, it was well and fully night now but the moon hung full and bright against the black sky lighting up the tundra. He weaved his way between the traps trying to push the memory of the last time he had tried to find the waterbenders during the full moon. He called out for them as he went along but the only sound he got in answer was the creaking of the ice and the wind in his hood. He was so tired, his feet felt swollen and sore every step seemed to weigh him down more. 

It started to snow, at first it was great big fat flakes that just drifted to the ground and everything started to get hazy. The moon looked like a puddle of light in the sky wavering around the edges and his head felt like it was full of air.

It almost felt like a dream as his knees hit the ice.

The snow was cold against his cheek, his hood blocked his view, and he couldn’t move. The weight of weariness was gone and had been replaced by the feeling of every muscle in his body being pulled tight. The sound of the wind was muffled by his hood and the only thing he could hear clearly was his own shallow breathing.

Sokka didn’t know how long he stayed like that, counting his own breaths and trying to break free of the invisible force that seemed to be holding him still.

Then he heard footsteps crunching across the snow, slow and steady. Maybe it was a polar bear hound coming to eat him as he lay helpless on the ice.

The voice came like a whisper on the wind, it sounded like it was coming from right next to his ear.

_ Sokka _

His blood ran cold and the memory of the creature made of ice flashed through his mind. Maybe the darkness wasn’t from his hood blocking out the moonlight, maybe he had fallen back into the monsters endless black eyes. Maybe he had never left.

_ It is not safe to be out on the ice alone Sokka  _

He felt the thing’s icy breath on the back of his neck.

_ You have to get up, Sokka _

He tried to call out, to shout for Katara, or Gran-Gran or even Hama but all that came out was a whimper.

The thing had a laugh like the cracking ice.

_ You have to do better than that, Sokka _

He took in as deep of a breath as he could, the air burned as it entered his lungs, and he shouted as loud as he could.

The tension left his muscles and the cold breath left the back of his neck. Sokka tentatively tried to raise his head. A sliver of moonlight broke through his hood along with the sound of Katara’s voice.

“Hama, did you hear that?”

Sokka pushed himself to his feet, they were close, “Katara?” he called.

Hama came up over the next drift. “What are you doing out here, boy?”

“Koni’s baby is coming.”

Hama moved surprisingly fast across the fresh snow and ended up nose to nose with Sokka, “What does that have to do with me?”

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves and remember what Gran-Gran had told him. “The baby is coming out feet first and Gran-Gran wants your help as soon as possible.”

There was a cold light in her eyes as she brushed past him, “Come on, Katara, we’re needed back at the village.”

“Coming.” There was a yelp from an arctic fox and the sound of a trap closing. Sokka tried not to flinch. Katara barely gave him a nod as she came over the drift and the three of them headed back to the village.

The village looked abandoned when they got back. The only sign of life was the light that was leaking out of the tents. Hama swept her way into Koni’s tent with Katara on her heels. Moments later a baby started to cry. Heads poked out of tents and the whole village broke out in excited whispers. From his place just outside of the tent, however, Sokka could hear angry voices. 

He couldn’t make out the exact words, but it sounded like Gran-Gran and Hama were arguing about something. There were a few minutes of this as everyone waited, no one else in the village could hear anything but the cries of the baby which died off into happy gurgles.

Gran-Gran was the first one out of the tent, there was a bit of blood on her dress and a thin smile on her face, “It’s a girl, and both she and Koni are doing just fine. I’m sure you’re all very excited to see the baby, but right now I think we all need some sleep.” Faces full of pleased smiles retreaded back into tents and Gran-Gran turned back to Sokka. “You should go back to the tent and get some sleep, you did a lot of hard work today.”

He did as he was told, but when he collapsed down into his pile of furs he found that he was scared to close his eyes. He kept seeing flashes of the ice woman at the edge of his vision. 

It was about an hour later when Gran-Gran came in, she was fuming and muttering under her breath, “A waste of her time? It may have been a long time since she’s had to deal with these sorts of things but this is what waterbenders do. That self-centered, condescending, old-” she stopped when she saw Sokka looking up at her. “What are you doing still awake?”

He shrugged, “Is everything alright?”

Gran-Gran sighed, “Yes everything is fine, I’m just a bit annoyed with Hama. She seems to think- Well it’s not important. Koni is doing well and so is the baby, that's all that we need to concern ourselves with.” She gave him a kind smile, “And it's good luck, a baby born under the full moon, that's when you were born, did you know that? Your mother was scared that you would be a waterbender and that we would have to start worrying about raids again, but I told her, ‘There’s nothing more lucky than a baby born in the moonlight.’” She patted Sokka on the cheek. “Anyway, you should get some rest, we don’t want you falling asleep on your feet.”

Gran-Gran didn’t see the shiver that went through him as she started to get ready for bed.

Sokka did manage to get to sleep, but his dreams were filled with the cold moon hanging above the tundra and voices coming up through the ice.


	6. The Southern Raiders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winter passes into spring, black snow falls, raiders return to the southern water tribe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy. This probably could have been two chapters based on how long the previous ones have been, but hey why would I make things easier in the fanfic that I'm writing for a children's cartoon right as the semester is starting up that seems like far too logical a decision.  
Anyway, here's the next chapter. We're almost done with the hurting part and then we can get on to the comfort which I swear will be warm and fuzzy and make you feel good inside or I will cry.  
Thanks again to VasNirada for, unknowingly, encouraging me to write this instead of doing my course work.

The winter passed, long and dark, which was how all winters passed in the south pole, but this one was the longest and darkest that Sokka could remember. It probably wasn’t really any longer or darker but Sokka was alone and there was so little that he could do in the endless darkness.

He spent more time with Gran-Gran that winter than he ever had before. He learned some interesting things, mostly about cooking and medicine, but there was only so long you could spend with someone who was eighty years your senior. So, Sokka also spent a lot of his time alone. During the lightest hours of the day, he would check his traps and any other free time he got went to reinforcing the village’s wall and his watchtower.

Sokka tried not to think about the ice woman.

That didn’t stop her from coming back.

The next time he saw her he had dozed off at the foot of the watchtower.

He woke up to the feeling of being crushed and unable to move. It was dark and no one was in sight. Except for her. The full moon was just above the horizon, casting long shadows across the center of the village. The thing had no shadow and it left no tracks in the snow as she moved toward him. She swayed from side to side, more like an animal than a person. 

Then she started laughing. It was a horrible noise like cracking ice and snow thunder. Sokka thought that the ice was going to give way beneath him.

When she reached him she was smiling, her mouth full of needle-thin teeth. He once again found himself falling into the unending dark of her eyes.

After that Sokka avoided even sitting down outside for fear that he would fall asleep. And still, she came. 

There was always enough time between her appearances that Sokka would start to hope that he had seen the last of her, and then she would come back.

Sometimes all she did was stand at the tent flap, watching him. He couldn’t decide whether she was keeping something out or keeping him in.

However, during the full moon, and she always came during the full moon, she would laugh and dance a horrible sickening dance around the tent and whisper things that he only half heard. 

Every time Sokka would wake up shaking and cold, no matter how many layers he wore or furs he slept with. It felt like the chill was in his bones.

Katara kept drawing further away, every time Sokka got a chance to talk to her She was quiet. Occasionally he could convince her to share what she had been learning but he failed more often than not and they were left to sit in silence as Sokka pictured the Arctic Fox, moving like a puppet with some of its strings cut. He didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know enough about what Hama was teaching her to make a real argument against it, and as more and more time went by he knew less and less about his sister.

That scared him more than the weird water magic. Before Hama had arrived Katara had been loud and full of opinions and she constantly told him that he was a sexist idiot, which admittedly he probably was, but now Sokka missed it. He missed his bossy little sister, he missed watching the stars with her, and he even missed getting soaked when she tried to bend. Now all he got was cold glares and curt nods.

Hama had taken something inside her and frozen it and Sokka had no idea how to fix it.

Sokka’s fourteenth birthday came and went, but without his father and without any warriors in the village there was no one to take him ice dodging. The day felt hollow, supposedly he was a man now but without the right of passage he couldn’t be a real warrior.

Gran-Gran made stewed sea prunes and gave him a new parka.

“If you keep growing like this we’ll be out of fur before sunrise.” Gran-Gran grinned and Sokka laughed. 

“Thanks.” 

Eventually, winter gave way to spring and the sun started to peek back over the horizon. Sokka allowed himself to wander further from the village, but he made sure to return before the sun dropped back below the horizon. Once daylight started to last for a few hours Sokka went out and killed a seal.

The village was glad to have something fresh to eat other than fish and seaweed and Sokka started to feel better too as the sun spent longer and longer in the sky.

The ice woman didn’t seem to like the light, the night of the full moon was the only time Sokka saw her. She seemed smaller and less threatening in the dim light that made it into the tent and she no longer spoke, just sat there and watched as Sokka struggled against the unseen force that held him in place.

* * *

Sokka woke up when the sun started to pull itself away from the horizon.

He got dressed, he had some seal jerky, he emptied and restocked his traps. It was a cloudy day with what looked like a snowstorm brewing so Sokka worked fast and he was done by noon, so he started reinforcing the base of his watchtower. 

Katara and Hama went out onto the tundra not long after, it wasn’t unusual for them but Hama spent a long moment with her gaze fixed on the horizon before they left. Gran-Gran was in the center of the village making sea-prune stew and children were running around her laughing as they threw snowballs at each other. Everyone seemed to have finished their work early that day in preparation for the storm and they were standing and sitting around the village.

It was a calm scene that reminded Sokka of the days before his mother was killed when he and Katara would chase each other around the tents and the war was a far off thing that other people had to deal with and their parents were always there whenever they needed them.

The snow started to fall, the flakes were big and light and not falling very fast so Sokka decided to finish the section he was working on before calling it for the day. When he reached down to make the next brick he saw it. The top layer of snow was stained, almost black.

Someone shouted, “It’s a raid!”

Sokka straightened up, it was his duty to protect his tribe, “Everyone get inside!” They did as he said. Sokka cast a hopeless look at Gran-Gran, “Hama and Katara are out on the ice somewhere.” He paused hoping that she would give him some direction but she said nothing. He closed his eyes. “I can’t leave the village unprotected to go search for them.”

She put her hand on his shoulder, “ Perhaps that is better, maybe we can convince them that there is nothing here that they want.”

Sokka glanced around his village, it would not be a hard lie to tell, the only possible sign of waterbenders was the repaired meetinghouse roof, everything else could easily have been done by hand. They walked quickly back to their tent. “You stay here, I’ll meet them alone.”

His father had shown him how to put on warpaint before the warriors left, it had just been another part of his training. Here’s how you throw a boomerang. Here's how you set a trap. Here’s how you prepare for battle. It all seemed far off and hazy as Sokka prepared to face a Fire Navy ship alone. Then there had been a dim hope, of seeing the world, of saving it by his father’s side, now all he could picture was the last raid and Katara shouting over the sound of fire blasts.

Sokka took up a post on the wall, in the distance, he could see the ship approaching, it seemed huge, made of dark metal, flying a red and black flag. As they drew closer he could make out a bird. 

He looked between the bone spear in his hand and the ship that was cutting across the water toward his village. It would be no match if it came to a fight, the Southern Water Tribe had survived thus far in the war only because the Fire Nation seemed content to take their benders and simply leave the rest of the village in ruins. Tents were easy enough to replace, but there were less than fifty people living at the Southpole, these raiders could kill them all today and the world would go on.

Sokka tried to shake this thought from his mind.

The ship broke into the ice causing a crack to form first through the wall and past it into the village. Sokka tried and failed to hold on as the snow beneath him gave way. He skidded to a stop as the prow of their ship hit the ground. He got to his feet and waited as half a dozen men walked off the ship.

He braced his spear on the ground to keep it from trembling.

The leader of the party stared down at him, “Is this all the Southern Water Tribe has to offer? A boy playing at being a soldier?”

“What do you want with us?” Sokka tried to fight down the tremor in his voice. “There’s nothing here of any value.”

The man bent down to Sokka’s level, “I’ll tell you what, kid. You let me know where you're hiding your waterbender and we can leave without a fight.” There was a malicious glint in the man’s dark eyes and a hint of a smile on his face.

“There are no waterbenders here.”

He laughed, “You expect me to believe that? I have reliable information that tells me that there is a waterbender in the Southpole. I was told we cleared the last of them out four years ago but apparently you lot are sneakier than we gave you credit for.”

“The only people here are women and children.” 

“Fine, if you won’t tell me we’ll just have to find them ourselves.” He turned to his men, “Search the village, bring everyone out, and find me that waterbender!”

Sokka tried to rush him but found himself trapped by a pair of strong arms. He struggled against the hold as people were pulled from their tents. Scared faces glanced around looking between Sokka and Gran-Gran, but no one said anything about Katara, Hama, or anyone out on the tundra.

The soldiers asked everyone old enough to talk where the waterbender was. With every negative response, their leader grew more agitated.

Once everyone was questioned and every tent had been turned inside out he said, “Very well,” he looked around at the assembled people, “Burn their food stores.”

The villagers let out wails of protest, they might well starve without those stores. In the uproar, Sokka managed to break free of his captor. He pulled his club from his belt and charged the commander.

At first, it felt like ice-cold seaweed wrapping around his forearms as one of the raiders caught him with whips of flame.

He dropped to his knees and his club fell to the ground, useless. For a moment Sokka watched numbly as the fire burned through his sleeves. Finally, he registered the searing pain.

Sokka screamed and the world went white.

* * *

Katara missed the endless night when sometimes Hama would lose track of time and they would spend a whole day out on the tundra. She took in everything Hama had to offer and practiced it until it was nearly perfect. She loved the feeling of power that ran through her when she lifted fish out of the ocean or turned the snow on the ground into ice.

She wasn’t sure what to make of bloodbending. On one hand, it made her feel powerful and in control. On the other what Sokka had said about how scary it would be for the person being controlled worried her.

“On your toes Katara.” Hama’s voice shook her out of her thoughts and she moved into a fighting stance. The old woman created a circle of watery arms around herself. 

It was an exercise that Hama used a lot, it made Katara think quickly. As Hama lashed out she jumped and flipped past her strikes. The ones that she couldn’t avoid she took control of and shot back at her teacher. After almost a year of training, Katara could hold her ground against Hama for a while, she had learned how to use Hama’s own momentum against her and how to bend the ice under her feet to help her move. Eventually, though Hama would get the best of her with a trick or a move that Katara had never seen. They would go over what she did wrong and then they would go again.

It had been about an hour when the black snow started to fall. It distracted Katara for a moment and Hama swept her off her feet, leaving her flat on her back on the ice.

“Hama? What's happening?”

The old woman looked back in the direction of the village and was quiet for a long moment. “It’s the Fire Nation.”

Katara’s eyes widened, “A raid?! We have to go help them!”

Katara started to run, but Hama moved faster, freezing her feet to the ice. “No.”

“But-”

“Katara, if we go back now they will capture us, bind us in chains, bring us back to that horrible prison where they kept me, or worse.” Stormcloud grey eyes looked down at the girl, “If the village is smart they will tell the soldiers there are no waterbenders here, they may well leave us alone. There is no strategic power in taking the Southpole and no great victory in a slaughter here. No, we will hide, this time.”

Indignant rage boiled up in her. “But, we’re supposed to protect them. Isn't that why you're training me?”

“One day, Karata, we will be two master waterbenders and we will take out whole fleets of Fire Navy ships, but today we are an old woman and a little girl. And we are going to keep out of sight until they’re gone and then we will help them pick up the pieces.” Katara wanted to argue more but Hama cut her off, “Unless you cannot avoid it you must learn to only fight battles you have a chance at winning, child. It is better to be a persistent thorn in the side of your enemy than to burn out in a single fight.” 

Katara bowed her head, “Yes, Master Hama.”

They hid in a caved-in game igloo from last summer, before her dad had left. Hama sealed the door and most of the roof, leaving only a small hole where the chimney used to be.

Katara tried to ignore the blood that stained the ice as they waited and listened. The creak of metal and the thump of the gangplank on the snow cut across the frozen plane. Katara heard cruel laughter and then shouts of protest.

Hama kept a hand wrapped around her arm the entire time. She tried to read the emotions on the old woman’s face but there seemed to be none.

Sokka’s war cry echoed across the tundra for a moment before it was cut off by the crack of a whip and turned into the most horrible scream Katara had ever heard. She tried to get up but Hama held her down.

“Not yet,” She hissed, “They haven't found what they were looking for, they will leave soon.”

“They’re hurting Sokka!”

“They will hurt him more if they think they can use it against you.”

The screaming stopped, there was a long silence before they heard the creak of metal again. “That was their ship closing,” Hama told her, “We’ll go back in a few minutes, let them get out of sight.”

The village was in disarray when they returned. Several tents had been reduced to holes in the ice, filled with ashy puddles.

There were mothers holding their children and crying. There was a huge hole in the wall, next to it Katara could see Sokka’s weapons lying on the snow. Gran-Gran was kneeling over something nearby.

Hama had a blank expression on her face as she surveyed the wreckage. “Katara, check and see if anyone is hurt, bring any injured people to the meeting house. Then help people pick through what's left, check on the food stores. The meeting house will be open to anyone tonight, we’ll talk about rebuilding in the morning.”

Katara nodded and did as she was told, she tried to ignore the fact that she hadn’t seen Sokka. 

No one was hurt, but everyone was shaken. People were picking through the puddles that used to be their homes while Katara checked their food. It wasn’t a good sight. All of the fresh meat was either burnt to a crisp or soaked in mucky water, and dried seaweed that might have been there before had been reduced to nothing. The only thing left was some seal jerky that had been in waterproof bags.

When Katara had finished her tasks she looked around for Hama, standing in the place where Gran-Gran had been before was a new igloo, not big enough to stand in and clearly made by waterbending. She walked around the whole of the village before going to it.

Hama and Gran-Gran were inside arguing over a third person who was laying on the ground. Gran-Gran was speaking in a harsh whisper, “-healer. If you’re not going to-”

Katara let out a ragged sob, she had moved far enough into the igloo to see the face of the third figure, and the wounds on his arms.

It was Sokka laying there, his eyes were closed and his face was screwed up in pain, his arm wrappings had been burned clean though, along with most of the skin on his forearms what was left were grooves that looked almost white, charred black around the edges.

She ran, trying to make it someplace safe to be sick.

Hama caught up with her at the gaping hole in the wall before she could. The old waterbender grabbed Katara by the shoulders. “Do you understand what happened, child?”

Katara found it difficult to speak around her sobs, “They-they burned Sokka.”

Hama’s gaze was cold and hard, “Yes, they burned him, simply for standing in their way.”

“And we did nothing. We just sat there as he screamed.”

“No, Katara, if we had run in waterbending at the ready they would have done much worse to us. That is what they do to a non-bending child who stood in their way, imagine what they would have done to us.”

Katara couldn’t, so she said the only other thing that came to mind, “Is Sokka going to die?”

Hama turned back toward the igloo. “I don’t know.”


	7. Calm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The raiders have left and nothing is the same, but somehow, everything is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a really good thing that third degree burns also factor into my original writing, otherwise, I would feel bad about the amount of time I spent researching them.  
This is mostly an interlude chapter with lots of internal thoughts as we lead up to the big things that are gonna happen in the next chapter, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Katara couldn’t bring herself to look at Sokka as he lay on a pile of furs in the meeting house. The first night, Gran-Gran had made her help grind up herbs and mix them into seal fat. She left as soon as Gran-Gran would let her.

She caught glimpses of him sometimes. He looked pale, his hair was growing out on the sides, and he kept babbling to himself. Once he had turned his head toward her and called out for their mother, but his eyes were glassy and far away like he was looking at something behind her.

She spent as much time as she could away from the meeting house until Sokka was finally moved back to their old tent. He walked there, leaning heavily on Koni and swaying like a tent pole in a snow storm.

Hama started to push her harder. Whenever she got tired or had trouble with a move Hama would look her dead in the eye and say, “If you cannot master this someday those soldiers will come back and they will find you and, if you are very lucky, they will kill you.” Katara worked herself until she could no longer see straight. 

In her nightmares, she would be caught in a prison made of fire, outside there was laughter and the scrape of metal on metal but no one ever came into the light. She would look down and see her own arms, burned like Sokka’s were, a horrible mess of charred skin that would start to peel away until her whole body turned to ash.

She woke up in a cold sweat.

Gran-Gran was angry. She had overheard her yelling at Hama once just outside the village wall.

“-should have done something.” Gran-Gran was saying.

Hama’s reply was cool and level, “You can’t really have expected the girl to face off against all those armed men.”

Katara ran away, but she started to notice what Gran-Gran was doing more. The old woman glared after her and Hama as they left the village to do their training. She only spoke to Hama if she had to and even then her words were short and clipped.

It got worse when Sokka woke up. He tried to talk to her when she was nearby, but all Katara could see was the image of him laying on the ice with his arms burnt and skin ashy grey.

Waterbending was the only thing she could find to do, even when Hama was doing something else Katara practiced. She could make big things now, igloos, spikes of ice sharp as daggers, waves so tall they would drown the whole village. However, bloodbending was drawing most of her thoughts, she was frustrated that it couldn’t be done without the full moon so she could practice more, and she was starting to wonder what it would be like to use it on a person.

* * *

The time after the raid was fuzzy in Sokka’s mind. He could remember being carried to the meeting house at some point and Gran-Gran pacing around him, she was muttering to herself and she sounded angry but he couldn’t tell why. He remembered being thirsty, oh so very, very thirsty but his hands felt heavy and numb, like they had been filled with sand so he couldn’t keep hold of his waterskin. 

He knew somewhere in the back of his tired and thirsty brain that something had happened to his arms, and probably he should check that out, and probably he should be up and doing his chores, but it was so much easier to just sleep and let time roll by. Anyway, it's not like his arms hurt, they were just numb and heavy.

By the time Sokka was able to keep himself awake for longer than an hour the sun had risen for the summer. He’d been moved back to Gran-Gran’s tent and he had a vague memory of walking across the village.

That was the first time he got a proper look at his arms, they weren’t as grisly a sight as he had expected, sure he knew that the ribbons of pink flesh that now wound up his forearms were bad, and he knew that it was bad that he could barely feel it when he touched them but it all felt like a far off problem something for future Sokka to deal with while present Sokka basked in blissful ignorance for a while longer. 

Unfortunately, Gran-Gran, who did not hold with most kinds of ignorance, decided that he was awake enough to learn about how to take care of the burns It involved a lot of rubbing his arms with some healing gunk and wrapping them in bandages and then wearing something that was kind of like a bracer but made of thinner skin that he was supposed to pull tight enough so that he felt it but not so tight that he stopped feeling his fingers.

He had hoped that eventually, he would be able to stop with all of it. But, over time, he realized that that wasn’t going to happen. Sure the gunk had been replaced with some lotion made from seal fat, the bandages were more like the arm wraps he had worn before to protect his arms from the snow, and feeling returned to his hands before the sunset, but some things didn’t get better. The pink skin on his arms didn’t fade and no amount of wrappings or lotion could bring back any more feeling than the ghosts of touch.

Even so, life moved into a new kind of normal. Sokka spent most of his time in close proximity to the village. Fall had come before Gran-Gran let him back into a canoe and he only managed to convince her to let him go on two seal hunts before winter set in.

The worst part, beyond the pitying looks that the other villagers gave him, or Gran-Gran’s curfew, or even the ice woman’s resurgence as darkness started to set in, was Katara. 

Before the raid, she had been withdrawn, clearly preferring Hama and her new world of power and purpose to anything Sokka could give her, but now- He would see her across the village, not doing anything just watching something or waiting, so go to talk to her, but she would pull away, duck into another tent, start up a conversation with the nearest person, usually a toddler, and once she even walked out of the village to avoid him. She wouldn’t meet his eyes and when Hama needed the night to herself Katara would spend as little time as possible with Gran-Gran and Sokka, only coming in when it was time to sleep.

It was undeniable that she was getting more powerful. Sokka had seen her practicing building igloos out on the tundra, she could build enough in a day to house a village twice their size, but she never left them standing. 

Sokka had gone to investigate the place after she left once. The only sign he could find of the village she had built there was that the snow underfoot looked freshly fallen even though there hadn’t been any snowfall in a month.

Whatever that blood thing was that Hama was teaching her was getting stronger too. After the full moon there would be traps with two foxes in them, one morning he woke up to a dozen confused arctic hens wandering around the village.

Maybe it was good. Maybe if Hama had more faith in Katara’s abilities, if Katara was more powerful, the next time a raid happened Hama would join in the fight. Help to drive them away.

Maybe.

* * *

The next year passed without much happening. Gran-Gran got less strict about his activities, which was good because he hit a growth spurt during that summer and grew out of two new parkas by the time winter set in. Katara stayed as far away from them as possible and Hama stopped making her stay with them. 

Sokka started to train the younger kids to hunt. It would be years before any of them could actually be of any help to him, but it would be better to start teaching them now. Sokka tried not to think about the fact that it should have been their fathers doing this, that he wasn’t even really a man yet in the eyes of the tribe, or that he and none of them ever would be if their fathers didn’t come home.

He started talking to himself when he was alone. Thinking out loud about how to build one of the big boats that the warriors had left on. Once he figured that out he moved on to how to fortify the wall and his watchtower. When he couldn’t think of anything he would make up rhymes and sing songs to himself. Anything to keep from thinking about, the raiders, or the fire nation, or what Hama was telling his sister.


End file.
